The use of tillage apparatus is well known, and various types of apparatus have been developed that are useful for one or more tasks.
As such apparatus has been developed and utilized, it has become evident that such apparatus could be improved, particularly for the many different tasks to be accomplished. It has been discovered, for example, that conventional tillage apparatus, such as the disc harrow, disc cultivator and rotating hoes, have not proved to be completely suitable for preparing ground for seeding where legumes are to be grown in established grass sod.
For growing legumes in an established grass sod, the ground surface is often uneven or rocky and may have grass swards of differing thicknesses thereon. To prepared such ground for seeding or grassland renovation, it is desirable that the number of trips that an implement must make over such ground be held to a minimum in order to accomplish such tasks as tilling, seeding, cultipacking, and spraying of herbicides. Hence, an implement capable of performing all of the necessary tasks in successive steps during a signal pass over the ground was needed.
Responding to this need, apparatus has heretofore been developed having a capability for opening a furrow, depositing seed in the furrow, packing the seed, and spraying chemicals on the planting area. Examples of such apparatus for carrying out some or all of these various tasks can be found, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,685,243; 2,734,439; 3,491,709, 3,566,813; 3,568,613; 3,604,515; 3,611,956; 3,673,970; 3,701,327; 3,749,035; and 3,866,552.
Cutting of the sward and sod mat and provision of a furrow therein has, however, proved to be a continuing problem, at least in some instances, including problems of forming and/or controlling the width of a furrow to be cut.
When the apparatus is towed, as is preferred, the engine of a tractor is commonly utilized for power, as shown for example, in the patent to Kaller, U.S. Pat. No. 2,957,529. This allows the tillage apparatus to disconnect from the tractor in order to release the tractor for other uses.
In any event, considerable power has heretofore been required to cut the furrow, particularly where a plurality of furrows are simultaneously cut, as is conventional, and hence improvements in the cutting wheel are desirable.
in addition, cutter wheel drive has also been a problem, at least in some instances, and improvement in such a drive, as well as in the cutter wheel mounting, is also desirable.